Sacramento Psychiatric Hospital Pays $3.4M To Settle Medicare Fraud Case
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Federal officials say a company that owns and operates a Sacramento psychiatric facility has agreed to pay $3.45 million to the government to settle charges that it defrauded the Medicare program.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner on Tuesday said facility owner BHC Sierra Vista Hospital Inc. billed Medicare's Partial Hospitalization Program for unqualified patient visits between January 2003 and September 2009.
Sierra Vista is owned by Psychiatric Solutions Inc. and Universal Health Services Inc.
The U.S. Attorney's office says the company billed for outpatient treatment for patients who rarely attended, failed to get proper approvals for treatment and did not get physician orders for some tests.
The settlement also resolves a whistleblower lawsuit by a former Sierra Vista employee, who will receive $587,000 of the recovered amount.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
